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FC-301: Fire Corps in Disaster Response is designed to show how Fire Corps fits into a community’s disaster response efforts. Because Fire Corps teams already assist fire and EMS departments in their duties to keep the community safe, Fire Corps volunteers can also be used to start, improve, or enhance a fire department’s disaster response efforts. This training can be taken as part of your department and Fire Corps team’s National Preparedness Month activities. Take the course now through the NVFC’s Virtual Classroom.

Is your home fire safe? Does your family have an escape plan? According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to 370,000 home structure fires. These fires caused 13,910 civilian injuries, 2,520 civilian deaths, and $6.9 billion in direct damage. On average, seven people died in U.S. home fires per day from 2007 to 2011.

To encourage residents to practice home fire safety, the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) teamed up with the Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. (SHOS) to provide a free home safety pamphlet that includes a fire escape plan. Additionally, SHOS is offering special smoke detector and home fire extinguisher pricing during October, and a portion of the sales will go back to local fire departments.

The home safety brochure is part of the SHOS “Salute to Local Heroes” campaign, which raises money for local fire departments in SHOS communities. The donations collected in stores provide firehouses with critical funds to improve resources for training, equipment, and other support where the local firefighters need it most. The campaign has raised more than $200,000 for local fire departments. In addition, SHOS and the NVFC are working together to bring community members information on home fire safety, how to join their local department, and how to donate funds to support local heroes.

About Sears Hometown and Outlets Stores, Inc.
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. operates through two segments – the Sears Hometown and Hardware segment and the Sears Outlet segment. The Sears Hometown and Hardware segment’s stores provide customers with in-store and online access to a wide selection of national brands of home appliances, lawn and garden equipment, tools, sporting goods, and household goods, depending on the particular store. The Sears Outlet stores provide customers with in-store and online access to purchase new, one-of-a-kind, out-of-carton, discontinued, reconditioned, overstocked, and cosmetically damaged products across a broad assortment of merchandise categories, including home appliances, apparel, mattresses, sporting goods, tools, and lawn and garden equipment at prices that are significantly lower than manufacturers’ suggested list prices. Learn more at www.shos.com.

About the NVFC
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) is the leading nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, EMS, and rescue services. The NVFC serves as the voice of the volunteer in the national arena and provides invaluable tools, resources, programs, and advocacy for first responders across the nation. Learn more at www.nvfc.org.

Joining the volunteer fire service means a lifestyle change not only for the individual volunteer, but also for their entire family. To help family members navigate the volunteer fire service life, the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) partnered with FirefighterWife.com to create the new resource, What to Expect: A Guide for Family Members of Volunteer Firefighters.

This guide is intended for spouses, children, parents, siblings, or significant others of volunteer and paid-on-call responders. It introduces family members to the basics of the volunteer firefighter life and provides guidance for keeping family relationships strong, being part of the fire department family, and more. In addition, there are first-hand accounts from volunteer firefighters and their family members along with an array of tips and resources to help first responder families adjust to this lifestyle. Information on Fire Corps is also included.

The guide is available for free download from the NVFC web site, or order print copies from the NVFC store. For a limited time only, NVFC members can order up to 25 print copies for free; access the discount code on the Member Benefits page of the Members-Only section of the NVFC web site.

About the National Volunteer Fire Council
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) is the leading nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, EMS, and rescue services. The NVFC serves as the voice of the volunteer in the national arena and provides invaluable tools, resources, programs, training, and advocacy for first responders across the nation.

About FirefighterWife.com
FirefighterWife.com is an online community for wives, fiancées, and girlfriends of firefighters. Their mission is to strengthen fire marriages and encourage fire families.

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Citizens Helping Fire and EMS

Since its start in 2004, Fire Corps has helped fire and EMS departments in 49 states to build more capacity by engaging community volunteers to assist in a variety of non-emergency roles. These community volunteers can make a real difference for their local department, both by expanding the services a department can offer and by enabling first responders to focus more on training and response activities. Fire Corps is a partner program under the Citizen Corps initiative and is funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.